Three spinners in Indian World Cup team

The Indian World Cup cricket team has very few surprises. The selection committee, headed by chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth, took a little over an hour at a hotel on Monday to finalise the 15-member team that comprised an extra spinner than what was expected.

The World Cup will be played from February 19 to April 2 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, a factor which obviously compelled the selectors to go in for an extra spinner as the pitches in the sub-continent tend to favour the tweakers. So from an expected five (medium-pacers) plus two (spinners) combo, it ultimately came down to four plus three as the selectors put forward the 'Indian conditions'.

"This is the best balanced team that we can find," beamed Srikkanth as he briefed the media. "This team has a very strong batting line-up and good spinners," he added.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be leading a batting line-up that starts with Sehwag and Gambhir and a set of explosive stroke-players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and himself. Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel are the four medium-pacers while both R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla came in as spinners to assist Harbhajan Singh. That effectively sealed pacer Sreesanth's fate.
For more info- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/series-tournaments/icc-world-cup-2011/top-stories/Three-spinners-in-Indian-World-Cup-team/articleshow/7304296.cms

Yuvraj Singh in 'top 10 sporting egos' list

Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh finds himself in a rather unflattering list with a British newspaper naming him as one of the 'top 10 sporting egos' of recent times.

Yuvraj, who has failed to find a place in India's Test squad for some time, was described as a talented cricketer whose ego has been inflated by the moolah from the Indian Premier League.

"The Twitter biography says it all, really: 'Cricketer, Celebrity, Entrepreneur, budding Philanthropist aka Yuvi'," 'Daily Telegraph' said.

"Wonderfully talented teenager got lost in the 'tamasha' which accompanied the Indian Premier League. Ego, bank balance and waistline have all swollen in recent years, but his performances have deserted him. Lost his rag completely last summer when, as India's 12th man in Colombo, Sri Lankan fans mocked him as 'waterboy'," the newspaper said.

Yuvraj has a fellow cricketer for company in former England captain Kevin Pietersen who yesterday claimed that his selfless resignation from skipper's job was the reason for England's Ashes victory.

"Switch hits and tattoos, Lamborghinis and Liberty-X -- Kevin Pietersen is a very different type of English cricketer. 'The walking ego' is how Shane Warne described Pietersen earlier this winter.

"There's no doubt that Pietersen's flamboyance and arrogance have contributed to his downfall on a number of occasions, most notably when he reaches 94 and starts looking for the photographers," the newspaper said.

Others in the list include boxing legend Muhammad Ali, current Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, basketball great Michael Jordan and golf legend Nick Faldo.
For more info- http://cricket.ndtv.com/storypage.aspx?id=SPOEN20110165140&nid=76291

Read more at: http://cricket.ndtv.com/storypage.aspx?id=SPOEN20110165140&nid=76291&cp

Team India has ball at coach’s birthday party

It was party time in the Indian dressing room as players celebrated coach Gary Kirsten’s 43rd birthday after winning the Test series against New Zealand on Tuesday. 

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni however, wanted to keep the celebrations secret and did not reveal anything when he was asked at the post-match press conference about whether they are planning a party or not. “That you have to guess. The person with a lot of cake on his head should be the birthday boy!” he chuckled.

It was later found out that the Indian players were involved in smattering each other’s faces with the birthday cake as Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh sprinted straight into the field to avoid having cream pasted all over their faces. 

Incidentally, it was the under-pressure Suresh Raina who was after the Indian captain and Gambhir. Dhoni, incidentally, sat on the staircase of the dressing room for a long time in order to escape Raina's ‘eagle eye’ even as the UP player insisted that he “won’t do anything” to his captain. The celebrations were understandable as Kirsten has been a popular amongst the Indian coaches in recent times.

A few weeks back, when reports about Cricket South Africa approaching him for the coach’s job after World Cup came in, some of the senior Indian players said that the BCCI should retain his services. 

For more info- http://cricket.123india.com/news/112010/520101124.html

Nadal and Federer to meet in two exhibition matches

Madrid: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will interrupt their brief off-season to face off in two exhibition matches before Christmas in Zurich and Madrid next month, it was announced on Thursday.

The world's two best players, both in London to compete in the ATP World Tour finals, will play in Zurich's Hellenstadion on Dec. 21 before flying to the Spanish capital to play the following day at La Caja Magica.

Proceeds from the best of three set matches will go to the players' charities.

"I always enjoy playing Rafa on the big stages and it is especially exciting when we can do it to help raise monies for our foundations," 16-times grand slam champion Federer said in a statement on Thursday.

The announcement of the exhibition matches comes as the ATP prepare for a series of board meetings in London in which they are expected to shorten the men's calendar -- a move favoured by both Nadal and Federer.

World number one Nadal, who boasts 14-7 record over Federer in competitive mathces, has only just returned from a shoulder injury which prevented him playing at the Paris Masters.

"It's their right to play these matches, especially as they're doing it for charity," ATP chief Adam Helfant said in London this week when asked if he agreed with players taking part in exhibition matches during the off-season.

However, the ATP could bring in rules regarding exhibition matches if they agree a two or three week lengthening of the off-season. "We are not looking to change the exhibitions or special event rules across the whole calendar, but I'm talking about this potential mandated period of rest across two or three weeks," Helfant said.

For more info- http://www.zeenews.com/news669047.html

The hosts back to the drawing board

Sri lankans first inning before three runs of follow-on effaced by visitors, and West Indies gave one more chance Sri Lanka to cross their as high as a kite target of 580, on fourth day at Galle opening test. Despite Prasanna Jayawardene and Samaraweera’s vigorous half centuries before unbelievable Prasd’s 47 runs resistance, Sri Lanka lost the battle of follow-on just before three runs. Shane Shillingford, who was responsible for Sri Lanka’s devastation, got four wickets at eleventh hour of host’s inning. Shillingford completely demoralized Sri Lanka to carried them at follow-on stage. Sri Lanka’s helplessness in this test is directly proportional to dominant performance of Gayle and Shillingford.

Sri Lanka started the fourth day after yesterday’s early stumps due to rain, with sound position of 165/3 and their experienced regnant Jayawardene was playing with half century, but Jayawardene’s resistance finished early today by Kemar Roach, the very first striker by West Indies. Roach got this crucial wicket when Jayawardene was looking dangerous with his familiar stylish bating with 59 runs. Later Samaraweera, who also played a decent 52 runs inning with ex-skipper to gave enough hope of bounced back to hosts,finally  gave his important wicket to visitors as run out by taking needless run.

Prasanna Jayawardene was the next half century maker, gave some frustration to West Indies, who were at the drop of a hat for follow-on. Prasanna made glorious 58 runs. The last Samaritan of Sri Lankan squad was Damikka Prasad, who is absolutely green for this sort of tense circumstances, but it was a terrific display of managed bating performance by him, which surprised visitors. Prasad caught world’s eye by resisting with 47 crucial runs.

Sri Lanka’s batsmen fought very well but it was a Chinese puzzle chase of 580, and also when one of the opponent has already made some record for test cricket history, it became horrible to add new fuel of enthusiasm. Sri Lanka all out at 378 runs just three runs short of follow-on with lose face.

After follow-on Sri Lanka started their second inning with staying on crease ethic, which displayed by the opening pair, who both were failed in first inning without doing something. This time they back to square one, Paranavitana and Dilshan both were on 44 runs and were playing remarkably to defend their team from another lose face. At stumps of fourth day Sri Lankan score was 89/0.

For more info- http://www.star-cricket.com/2010/11/18/the-hosts-back-to-the-drawing-board/